CALYCIFLOR.E 257 



of Brionie, forming them to the shape of men and 

 women ; which falsifying practice hath confirmed the 

 errour amongst the simple and unlearned people, 

 who have taken them upon their report, to be the 

 true mandrakes." 



Conway relates a story about Bryony and its 

 substitution for the Mandrake. He says — "Thus the 

 author of ' Secrets du petit Albert ' (Lyons, 1718) says 

 that a peasant had a Bryonia root of human shape, 

 which he received from a gipsy. He buried it at a 

 lucky conjunction of the moon with Venus in Spring, 

 and on a Monday in a grave, and then sprinkled it 

 with milk in which three field-mice had been 

 drowned. In a month it became more human-like 

 than ever. Then he placed it in an oven with 

 Vervain, wrapped it afterwards in a dead man's 

 shroud, and so long as he kept it, he never failed in 

 luck at games or work." The same author says that 

 he saw a figure owned by a rich Jew, which had a 

 human face on a hen's body. The monster lived for 

 a time on worms, and after death its potency con- 

 tinued. The German stories are very curious. One 

 of them relates that a horse-dealer of Augsburg once 

 lost a horse, and being poor, wandered in despair to 

 an inn. There some men gave him an Alraun 

 (mandrake), and on his return home he found a bag 

 of ducats on his table. His wife, becoming suspi- 

 cious, extorted from him the confession that he had 

 some potent charm, and she induced him to return 

 with it to the men, but they could not be found. In 



17 



